


Scrabble

by miera



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M, Off-World, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-01
Updated: 2010-09-01
Packaged: 2017-10-14 07:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miera/pseuds/miera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth has to rescue John.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scrabble

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **melyanna**. I no longer remember where her "Elizabeth saves John" prompt was from, that's how long ago this was started. I finally came up with an ending line that didn't utterly suck and here we are.

Truthfully, exploring the dank and musty caverns of an Ancient outpost probably wasn't an average person's idea of fun.

For the leader of the Atlantis expedition, however, it sure as heck beat paperwork – evaluations and requisition forms, which would've occupied her entire day had John's team not found the outpost and needed help with translations. Rodney had detected an energy source at the location and Teyla had found references to some sort of laboratory.

At John's insistence, Elizabeth had arrived with two Marines in tow, even though the planet was uninhabited and peaceful and the gate wasn't far from the entrance to the tunnels, where Teyla was waiting.

John, as expected, stuck with Elizabeth while Teyla and Rodney headed down the other main branch of the tunnel. Ronon was patrolling on the surface. He wasn't wild about cornering himself underground, which Elizabeth could understand.

She moved the flashlight along the writing on the wall, running the glyphs through her mind. John stood nearby, watching the cave and Elizabeth vigilantly even though the tunnels were quiet and empty. The air was cool and damp, and the smell of dust and neglect increased the further they got from daylight. Elizabeth kept her mind on the translations rather than dwell on the mountain of rock they were underneath.

"Any idea what these are?" John played the flashlight of his gun along a double groove that ran down the walls.

"I think it was carved out in sections? The writing on the corners reads like a coordinate system of some sort."

John shrugged and moved ahead of her. Something about the grooves nagged at Elizabeth but she couldn't figure out why. She caught up with him. "You know, the extra Marines weren't necessary."

John's expression went a little tense and now he was deliberately not looking at her. "The expedition leader doesn't go wandering around alien planets unaccompanied."

She snorted. "You make me sound like a helpless child. I can walk half a mile across a peaceful planet, John." She wasn't really angry, but the constant guards and restrictions did chafe a bit.

He sighed. "How many times has a supposedly peaceful or welcoming planet turned out to be full of monsters or enemies or some crazy plant with pollen that turns people psycho?"

She had to concede he had a point, since every single one of those things had happened to them just in the last three months. "Fine, but weren't you the one telling me just a couple days ago I needed to get out of my office more?" They'd been at game night at the end of last week and over yet another round of Connect Four he'd told her she was paler than a vampire and needed to get some sun.

He gestured with his gun. "You are out of your office."

"Under Marine guard."

"Elizabeth, you're under Marine guard _in_ your office too, in case you hadn't noticed."

She couldn't come up with a retort for that. "Well, you promised me sunlight, and I'm noticing a distinct lack of it here, Colonel."

John's lips twitched and he flashed a look at her. "Sorry. When we find that planet with the pristine beaches and good waves, I promise I'll take you."

"No Marines?" It wasn't until the words were out she realized how flirtatious that sounded. There was a line she tried to maintain with their friendly banter. At least, she told herself there was a line. With John it was tough to figure out, since the most innocuous thing could sound dirty when he wanted it too.

"Just you and me and the surfboards," he promised, his attention on the tunnel ahead. If it had been lighter she would've checked his ears to see if he was flushing, but as it was, Elizabeth decided she'd just dodged a bullet and went back to her translations.

After several twists and turns of the tunnels they came to a circular room. There were several consoles scattered around with raised blocks covered in Ancient text. Elizabeth had seen pictures of similar objects at the SGC, but this was the first time they'd discovered anything so close in Pegasus. She started forward eagerly but before she could go investigate, John held out a hand. "Let me check it out first."

She nearly pouted for a moment before remembering that this _was_ his job, and just nodded agreeably.

John cautiously moved around the room. Unlike Atlantis and a lot of other Ancient sites in Pegasus, this room didn't light up at John's presence, so it either wasn't gene activated or the energy signature Rodney had detected wasn't working, or wasn't connected.

Elizabeth sidled along the wall, still behind John. But she was too curious about the consoles to resist.

John made a tight circle around the room and then his shoulders relaxed. He moved towards the center, which was marked by a circle in the ground, the better to keep watch. Elizabeth was already turning towards the nearest control console when a bright blue light shot through the room.

John yelled and Elizabeth startled, turning around. John was standing in the center of the circle, surrounded by blue light. "John?"

"Ow," he muttered, rubbing his eyes.

Before she could ask him what happened, an ominous rumbling came from behind her and Elizabeth whirled just in time to see a heavy stone door slide down at the entrance to the room, trapping them inside. Her heart surged in her chest. An Ancient booby trap?

Her radio crackled. "Elizabeth? What's going on?"

She drew in a deep breath. "I'm not sure, Rodney."

"The doors just closed!"

"I know," she said. John was watching her and gestured to his radio to indicate he couldn't hear anything. "Colonel Sheppard is trapped in some sort of force field."

Teyla's voice came back quickly. "Is he all right?"

"He seems to be," Elizabeth said. "But his radio isn't working."

There was a pause, then Teyla sighed. "We cannot contact the surface either. Rodney is examining the nearest controls to see if he can find a way to open the tunnels."

Elizabeth forced herself to be calm. "Okay. There are some control consoles in this room. I'll see if I can find a way to get the doors open from here."

Teyla signed off and Elizabeth turned her focus to John. "Are you okay?"

John nodded. His voice sounded distorted but she could hear it. "Yeah. I stepped onto the circle and got slammed by the force field. And blinded," he added, still rubbing his eyes.

"Okay." Elizabeth looked around. "Well it stands to reason the controls for that field must be here someplace, right?"

"Let's hope."

Panic was not going to help with the translating. Elizabeth forced herself to clear her mind. The words on this console were disjointed but seemed to relate to power distributions and... weather? She moved to the next one.

Three more consoles and she hadn't found anything promising. She became aware of John's gaze, though how in the world she could sense him looking at her she'd never be able to explain. She glanced over her shoulder and sure enough, he was staring at her. His hands were gripping his gun and even from across the room, she could see the tension in his body. "Anything?"

"Not yet. You'll be the first to know."

A few minutes later she darted another look at him. "Will you stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"Stop staring at me!"

John gestured uselessly at the cone of blue light trapping him. "What else am I supposed to do? I need you to get me out of here."

"I'm working on it," she snapped. She regretted it immediately. He wasn't trying to distract her; in fact, he was being very quiet. It was just that she could feel the staring and it wasn't helping. She could understand John's fear, but she was scared too, and the nerves put her on edge. Usually she wasn't the one trying to rescue him. It was generally the other way around.

John was sulking a little. But he turned his eyes away from her. Elizabeth let out a breath and tried to keep herself in control. She wasn't used to being the one in this position. She thought about what he would do if their positions were reversed.

"This would be going faster if you would let me play Scrabble, you know."

Even without looking, she knew John had turned his head and was staring at her again. "I'm sorry?"

She moved back to the previous console and a glance told her she was right. His mouth was even gaping open a little in outrage. Perfect.

She shrugged. "On game night you always make me play Connect Four, or Trouble. Like I don't have enough of that in my life." She retraced the letters on one of the controls. "If you'd play Scrabble with me, I wouldn't be so rusty at this."

John dragged her to the game nights with Carson's help most weeks. However, it was a bit awkward for people trying to relax when their bosses were right there, so usually after a little time passed, she and John ended up in a corner together playing each other and letting their team have fun. Sometimes Rodney joined them, or Teyla, but John always insisted on picking the games.

"You only want to play Scrabble so you can kick my ass," John told her.

"That would just be a bonus," she shot back, smirking – a habit she'd picked up from him over the years.

John started to reply but she held up a hand. "Hang on a second."

He was obediently silent while she moved back and forth between the two consoles for a few minutes. Carefully she started manipulating the controls and then turned to watch the results.

Unfortunately, instead of the blue light disappearing, an energy bolt shot out from the center and hit John, who yelled and nearly collapsed.

Frantically Elizabeth shifted the controls back. "Oh my God. John, are you all right?"

"Yeah," he grunted, straightening. "That hurt." The jolt apparently had hit him in the shoulder, because he was rubbing it ruefully. He glared at her. "Please don't do that again."

"It wasn't on purpose," she muttered, turning back to her work. "At least that proves this console controls the field."

She thought he muttered "great" under his breath, but she went back to going over the symbols again. "I thought it was the release mechanism. Why on earth would it shoot lightning at someone?"

"Not really caring about the whys right now," John said. He sounded crankier, but she could hardly blame him for that. She reached deep for patience.

"Okay, but if I understood the purpose of this place, it might help me figure out how the controls are organized."

John let out a breath and she could practically hear his mind churning. "Interrogation."

Elizabeth froze. Of course he went immediately to the nastiest option.

Then again, he was probably right. The force field was activated by contact as soon as John stepped into the circle. Handy for trapping someone, like a Wraith, out of reach of anyone standing near the walls.

"Maybe," she admitted out loud. Staying away from the electrocution buttons, she finally had an epiphany. "Aha."

John tensed again, probably bracing himself for more lightning bolts, but she ignored the implicit insult. Elizabeth bit her lower lip in concentration and sent up a prayer to anyone listening this was the "let the prisoner go" combination, not the "microwave the prisoner into dust" one.

A buzzing noise snapped through the room and the blue light disappeared. John practically jumped away from the stone circle. At the same time, with a protesting groan, the doors began to open.

She was disappointed but unsurprised when John took her arm and began walking fast towards the surface without a second glance. She tugged her arm free and made a half-hearted appeal, "Now that the doors are open, and we know not to step into the circle, it's safe enough."

"Says the woman who just shot a lightning bolt at me," John said, not breaking stride. "Teyla, we're headed for the surface."

"As are we," Teyla replied through the radio. Elizabeth could hear Rodney protesting as much as she was.

Elizabeth selected her strongest argument. "John, you asked me to come here to translate the carvings. I can't do that from the surface."

He glanced down a side corridor and shrugged. "We have other translators. That or I'll take some pictures for you."

Elizabeth slowed down. "You could've done that in the first place."

John noticed she wasn't keeping up with him and stopped, not making eye contact with her.

"John." He looked up at the ceiling.

Fortunately, Elizabeth knew how to play this particular game. She folded her arms across her chest and looked at him, her feet set in a way that told him she wasn't budging until she got an answer.

"I thought you could use the break, okay?" John finally admitted with a groan. He glanced at her then darted his eyes away again.

He looked... adorable. That wasn't a word Elizabeth associated with him often, but at the moment, he was a mix of bashful and embarrassed and it was just... cute.

She let him swing for a moment before allowing the grin to surface and joining him to walk back towards the entrance to the tunnels. "So, does that mean I get to play Scrabble next time?"

John snorted. "You shot a lightning bolt at me. We're playing Trouble every night for the rest of the year."

She rolled her eyes and maybe it was the rare moment of honesty or the adrenalin rush or both, but she nudged him and teased, " _Every_ night?"

John gulped audibly. She knew the smirk on her face was wicked but she just raised an eyebrow and kept walking. Before John could muster an answer, Teyla and Rodney appeared from another tunnel. Rodney implored her to reason with the other two, that the caves were safe now and they really need to get back down there. Elizabeth folded her hands together. "I'm sorry, Rodney. Colonel Sheppard was hit by some kind of energy weapon. He should probably go to the infirmary."

John shot her a dirty look for that one and Elizabeth decided she'd had enough fun at his expense for one day. But who knew what an ancient Ancient lightning bolt might do to someone with the ATA gene? It was better safe than sorry.

Rodney mumbled but the four of them headed for the surface, Teyla in the lead. John gestured for Elizabeth to precede him but she shook her head and fell in step alongside. He had been injured, after all.

"Don't feel too bad," she said quietly to him. "If Carson keeps you for observation, I'll smuggle you a deck of cards."

John looked at her sideways. "I'd been wondering if you played poker."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm a diplomat and a negotiator. Of course I play poker." John had that look in his eye, the one that meant he was planning something. "I'm not playing strip poker with you," she muttered at him.

He looked half-outraged, half-guilty. "I didn't say anything!"

Teyla and Rodney glanced back at them curiously. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "You were thinking it."

He didn't deny it. They were nearing the surface and she could see the tips of his ears were red.

Interesting.

"Besides, there are other games that are more fun when it's just two players," she observed, keeping her voice perfectly innocent. Apparently she didn't ordinarily sound that innocent, because the look John gave her was a mix of shock and something else, something that made her flush unexpectedly with warmth.

She was going to keep moving and let the moment pass, something she was getting very good at when John was concerned, but his lips twitched and he leaned close enough that she felt his breath against her ear. "If you bring the cards, I'll let you pick the game."

Before she could react he dropped behind her, waving to Ronon who was approaching from the trees. Elizabeth had to turn and hurry to keep up with Teyla and Rodney, but as she walked, that same feeling of knowing John was watching her came back.

The hell of it was, she was sure that somehow John knew that she knew it.

She didn't quite make it. They reached the gate and Teyla dialed. Just before they walked through, Elizabeth finally cracked and looked at John.

His expression hadn't changed. Which was unfair, because about 8,000 different thoughts had gone skidding through her mind during that short walk, but not him. He even raised his eyebrows, a definite challenge to see if she would back down.

That was just not a good idea.

Before she turned to the gate, she mouthed two words at him, in deference to their companions, "You're on."

She swore she could feel his stare even during the trip through the wormhole.


End file.
